Currently, conventional personal protective equipment (“PPE”) is typically used in a generic/uniform fashion, without taking into account any of the specific personal details related to the actual worker using the PPE. So, a generic type of PPE (out of any PPE category, such as respirators, face masks, protective suits, hearing protection devices, etc.) might be similarly assigned to all workers in an organization in a uniform fashion, without regard for their specific, individual needs. For example, conventional noise monitoring devices typically would use a generic noise exposure limit (for example, the maximum exposure allowed by law or regulation) in order to determine if a worker has been exposed to potentially damaging noise. Thus, current PPE devices do not take into account the fact that different workers may have different characteristics (such as previous hearing loss and/or previous exposure to potential dangerous levels of noise), which may result in different workers actually having different personal noise exposure limit levels (or other safety/protective needs). The disclosed embodiments may address these and similar problems, by for example, associating the PPE with relevant worker-specific personal information. And in some embodiments, the worker-specific personal information might even be used to custom configure the PPE, so that it better suits the individual worker's needs. In such ways, disclosed embodiments may improve personal protective equipment, helping to ensure that the PPE will actually function more effectively for a specific user/worker.